Hours

Prerequisite(s)

Sections

Notes: Performance generating systems are rule- or task-based dramaturgies that systematically set in motion a process of theatre, dance, or music creation in front of an audience. The resulting performance is not generated from the performers' impulses, as in other forms of improvisation, but rather from the ways in which a system affects the performers' memory, perception, and interaction. The performance does also not realize a script or repeat a score; instead of setting and rehearsing a compositional order, the systems challenge performers to respond to specific tasks in the moment and within constraints. The dramaturgical work with these systems necessitates a sharp shift in orientation from compositional possibilities to the question of which kinds of creative interaction and patterns a system attracts. Over the course of an intense week, we will examine three dance-, music-, and theatre-generating systems. Valentina Bertolani (PhD candidate in Music) will join us as guest teacher. Working through the systems one by one, we will watch archival recordings, read discussions of practice that can help us examine them, and analyze how they work. Aiming to build embodied knowledge onto this academic and dramaturgical foundation, we will test the systems in accessible and practical workshops. Finally, students will be tasked to develop a simple, yet generating, system of their own. This course is designed for upper-year and graduate Dance, Drama, and Music students.
The students of Performance Generating Systems will be tasked to maintain regular, supervised praxis of one hour, 4 days per week through January and February, and post written observations online at the end of each week. This praxis can be scheduled at the students' convenience and it can take the form of improvisation tasks learned during the block week or improvisation systems created by the students in the block week. Final written reflection assignments will be due after this period of praxis.